


Fragments

by LightningNymph



Category: Kingdom Hearts, Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Gen, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-12
Updated: 2012-12-12
Packaged: 2017-11-20 23:17:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/590792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LightningNymph/pseuds/LightningNymph
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"The city is quiet, and cold, even though it has no right to be. As he tucks away his wings, sore after flying for so long without any kind of run-up, Joshua can’t make up his mind if the lack of people makes it better or worse." Joshua reflects on Traverse Town.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fragments

The city is quiet, and cold, even though it has no right to be. As he tucks away his wings, sore after flying for so long without any kind of run-up, Joshua can’t make up his mind if the lack of people makes it better or worse. As the days stretch on with no one to keep him company but empty illusions of four people he’s trying to put back together with metaphorical duct tape and glue, he decides that it’s the latter.

Shibuya burned, and the screams of the people as those strange, yellow-eyed creatures creatures attacked will haunt him for a very long time to come. He may have planned on getting rid of the city altogether, but not like this, never like this. They didn’t revert to Soul as they would have if the Composer had pulled the plug, people  _died_ , not recoded but completely  _annihilated_.

Joshua doesn’t know how many of his Reapers died saving their home, nor does he use his omniscience to find out.

There’s one person he  _did_  look for, at least in the beginning, afraid though he may be to find out what happened to him. He gave up eventually, unable to look past the edge of this place without it collapsing in on itself, since his presence is the only thing keeping it together in the first place, built as it is out of his dreams.

So he throws himself into restoring Neku and his friends, and tries to ignore the nagging feeling in his chest. Mr. H. will find him eventually, after all, since looking after the Conductor is his  _job_.

He refuses to acknowledge the possibility that Mr. H. might be unable to look for him, because there’s just  _no way_  that could happen. He knows that it’s incredibly childish of him, pretending that if he doesn’t think about it it can’t exist, but it’s either that or falling to pieces himself.

Eventually he gets Neku and his friends up and running to a point, able to interact with each other, the “city” and the creatures that dwell in it, the Dream Eaters. He resolves to get them a Game of their very own, make them interact with their Partners and the other team to give each other shape again, because people don’t truly exist unless they are viewed by others, even glued-together fragments of dreams.

When he treks around the city on foot, searching for “Missions” to assign, he comes across a vast, empty piece of wall, pausing in his tracks thoughtfully. He can almost hear Mr. H. muttering to himself as he sketches up a design for it, considering a plain wall this size and place a personal affront.

Joshua looks left, right, over his shoulder. No one there as usual, not even the odd creatures that introduced themselves as Moogles when he finally introduced himself. He closes his eyes and pictures his personal favourite of CAT’s art, the one that Mr. H. ended up using for the Over The Top set. He pictures other tags by Mr. H. — the ones from Black Venus and Black Saturn, a few others — and scatters them through the back streets. When he opens his eyes again, the place feels a little more like home.

As he walks away, Joshua hopes that maybe soon, he won’t have to settle for a  _fragment_  of the city he knows.


End file.
